salsa and bachata

even though I was feeling crap all of yesterday, I decided I did want to meet up with chris- a friend I know from dancing. He had helped me loads to prepare for my history exams, is great to talk to, and as I know of now, to dance with. so theproposition to go salsa dancing had hung around the air for a while now, and after a coffee, and me not wanting to go home quit yet, we decided to have a look at the 7 grad (7°C, but actually more like 70°) which has salsa dance evenings, with an initial introductory course. we came late, had missed the salsa and now had come halfway into a simple bachata choreo. after few steps (the speed of teaching is really quick, but porpably cuz they do the same things a few weeks after another) the girls rotated around the room. I got todance with old, young, nice, less nice, people looking exactly like the inter midlife crisis dance freak from shall we dance, some of them really could move well, others less so.

Bachata is a very sensual, sexy dance, slower than salsa. like all latin dances, hip movements are a must, but this dance is so close that it is a bit intimidating dancing it with a complete stranger that could be your father. I had never danced bachata before. but I got quite a few compliments, so I think i didnt do that badly. what I love about it, is that it is not as standardised as the competitive latin dances. it is not as edgy, no necessity of straight legs, no complicated technique (forgive my ingnorance if this is not the case). but you dance what you feel like. you move to the music and have fun.

at the beginning of the free dancing part of the evening, chris and I were rather intimidated when we saw the other people dance. like always, if you dont know how to dance the dance, it looks immensly complex at first, whereas in reallity it is really simple. but, knowing the basic step we tried and did our best. by the end of the evening I had remembered some of the figures we had used as a warm up and at the beginning of last year's choreo. and in the end just dancing was really good. I think I am addicted.